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The world’s No 10 best badminton player Saina Nehwal at the BITS Pilani, Dubai.

Image Credit: Abdel-krim Ka llouche/Gulf News

Dubai: It has always been 100 per cent or nothing for Saina Nehwal.

She knew she couldn't serve two masters at the same time so she chose to set her books aside and pursue a career in badminton instead.

A decision to place anything above studying in a degree-hungry country such as India is sure to be frowned upon.

However, her stunning results and rise to number five in the world rankings have proved that Nehwal has indeed exercised good judgment in choosing the court over the classroom.

At 20, she is easily India's most successful sportswoman with numerous coveted trophies, including the BWF Super Series Indonesia Open and two Commonwealth Youth Games titles in her display cabinet.

"I wanted to focus on one thing and that's why I gave up [on studies after 12th Grade]," Nehwal said.

"The game is more important and that's what I want to focus on right now.

"When I am done with playing I will think about graduating."
Nehwal was recently the guest of honour at the prize giving ceremony of the seventh BITS Sports Festival at BITS Pilani, Dubai.

"My father is a scientist and he wanted me to take up medicine, but after playing well at a young age and representing India at the Olympics, and reaching the top eight in the world and then number five, everything seemed to be happening so good that I don't want to change a thing or even focus on anything other than badminton."

Nehwal said the next few years would be crucial to her career as she hoped to improve her world ranking and add to her dazzling list of successes.

"Five years from now I see myself as the world number one; as someone who has won the world championship — won the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, as someone who has won everything" she said.

"I believe I have the potential to do that because of the way I am playing against all the top players.

"I have been beating them regularly. If I work hard I know I will win good tournaments.

"An Olympic gold has always been my dream. I think I got ahead of myself and started thinking of the semis instead of focusing on my quarter-final match when I drew a blank and lost [at the 2008 Beijing Games]. When you really want something, sometimes you don't get it."

A semi-finalist at this year's All England Championships, Nehwal said her current coach Pullela Gopichand had a big hand in her transformation into an "international-level" player.

"I've been with him for the last four to five years," she said.

"I was a no-one a few years back, but he helped me improve. I was good at smashing and playing that fast, aggressive game, but he helped me with the good strokes."
Fact file

It looks like Saina is happy continuing with Badminton

However, her stunning results and rise to number five in the world rankings have proved that Nehwal has indeed exercised good judgement in choosing the court over the classroom.

"I wanted to focus on one thing and that's why I gave up [on studies after 12th Grade]," Nehwal said.

"The game is more important and that's what I want to focus on right now.

"My father is a scientist and he wanted me to take up medicine, but after playing well at a young age and representing India at the Olympics, and reaching the top eight in the world and then number five, everything seemed to be happening so good that I don't want to change a thing or even focus on anything other than badminton."

Nehwal said the next few years would be crucial to her career as she hoped to improve her world ranking and add to her dazzling list of successes.

"I believe I have the potential to do that because of the way I am playing against all the top players.

"I have been beating them regularly. If I work hard I know I will win good tournaments.

"An Olympic gold has always been my dream. I think I got ahead of myself and started thinking of the semis instead of focusing on my quarter-final match when I drew a blank and lost [at the 2008 Beijing Games]. When you really want something, sometimes you don't get it."

News article about Saina...

Badminton: Saina's Dubai desire

World No. 6 tells XPRESS she hopes to play here in the near future after her first visit to the city

By Jaydip Sengupta, Sports Writer
Published: 00:00 April 29, 2010

Dubai: Saina Nehwal was back in school...well, college for a few hours at least. Dropping in for a quick visit to grace the BITS Sports Festival at BITS Pilani, the World No. 6 shuttler regaled students to three games of exhibition stuff, as they cheered her every move.

She was scheduled to play just one game, but so caught up was she with the mood of the occasion that she extended her stint on the court.

In a courtside chat to XPRESS, she said: "Their enthusiasm is so infectious. It is really sad that Dubai doesn't have any international tournament, or a badminton federation for that matter. I would love to play here some day.

"But at least BITS Pilani, Dubai have invited me. The one in India still haven't," she said, on what was her first visit to Dubai.

Saina's stay was short, but she still managed to take in a bit of the city. "I always wanted to see the world's tallest building and I managed to do so on my way from the airport," she said.

The 20-year-old, who cracked the top five earlier this year, is just biding her time, as she seeks to be the best player in the world. "All those above me are from China. They play against themselves all the time in order to get better. I am all alone in that respect in India, with no other player in sight. So, I have to keep playing matches against them.

Think positive Saina. You can do it !!!

Originally Posted by CLELY

The 20-year-old, who cracked the top five earlier this year, is just biding her time, as she seeks to be the best player in the world. "All those above me are from China. They play against themselves all the time in order to get better. I am all alone in that respect in India, with no other player in sight. So, I have to keep playing matches against them.

Saina Nehwal just needs more consistency in terms of beating the other top CHN players like Wang Yihan (who has been losing left, right, and centre this year), Wang Xin, and Wang Shixian. Plus....one more European top-gun....Tine Rasmussen.

After the win, a spot of shopping

SINGAPORE - Change is in the air, with signs pointing to a revolution in women's badminton.

Heading that revolution are the South Korean women's team, who upset the Chinese giants 3-1 in the Uber Cup finals for the first time in 12 years to lift the coveted trophy in Kuala Lumpur last month.

India's top female player Saina Nehwal, who won the Badminton World Federation's (BWF) Junior Championship in 2008, is another who has savoured the feeling.

The 20-year-old defeated China's Wang Lin (world No 4) at last year's Indonesia Open Super Series to clinch her first major senior title, and is currently the top-ranked non-Chinese shuttler at world No 6.

The newly-crowned India Open Grand Prix Gold winner gave fans back home much to cheer about yesterday, after clinching her second super series title at the Li Ning Singapore Open at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, with a 2-0 win over 16-year-old Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan.

Victories over China's reigning world champion Lu Lan (world No 10) and Li Xuerui in Singapore have once again put her in the spotlight.

Nehwal, who was guided by 2001 All England winner Pullela Gopichand, is revelling in the attention and believes this could be the end of the Chinese women's stranglehold.

"The current players are not as strong as those like Zhang Ning, and their young ones are beatable," she said. "There is a lot of change in the game, and it's about time that happened. Everyone has good strokes, but it takes stamina and fitness to beat them.

"A lot of time in the women's game, players give up when they meet the top Chinese, but for me, even when I play the world No 1, I feel like a champion and that mentality has helped me," she added.

For her week-long effort at the Li Ling Singapore Open, the Indian took home the winner's cheque of US$15,000 ($20,700).

"This is one of my best performances and I'm happy with how I did today, but obviously the world champs in August are the next target," she said.

Nehwal heads to Jakarta to defend her title at the Indonesia Open this week.

On the cards later are the BWF World Championships, October's Commonwealth Game in New Delhi and November's Asian Games in Guangzhou.

And winning the Commonwealth Games gold in front of her home crowd will be special for the shuttler.

For now, Nehwal is just hoping to get some shopping done before she jets off to the Indonesian capital.

"I'm off to Mustafa (shopping centre) after this," she told MediaCorp.